Clean drinking water is a basic requirement for human life. Yet around 750 million people worldwide don’t have access to it today. And the problem will likely worsen considering the global population is estimated to grow by around 80 million people per year. After all, more people means an increase in water demand – by around 64 billion cubic meters annually. But how can we secure the water supply for the world’s population?

The first solution is obvious: consume sparingly. But that’s no easy feat given today’s ever-increasing industrial manufacturing. Whether it’s the chemical industry, paper manufacturing, the electronics industry or car production – everything requires water. Over 20 percent of all water sourced from rivers, lakes and ground water is used as industrial water or for industrial processes. In highly developed areas like Europe the figure is up to 60 percent.

A hopeless situation? Heads nod. Thankfully, innovative water treatment technologies from LANXESS, like Lewatit® ion exchange resins and Lewabrane® membrane elements for reverse osmosis, enable water to be used multiple times. This allows manufactures to significantly reduce their fresh water consumption in production processes, thereby saving water. In the chemical industry, water can be recycled an average of 28 times before it is channeled downstream, purified and reintroduced into the water cycle.